Getting in and getting on in medical careers: how the rules of the game are gendered

Abstract

This paper examines discourses about medical careers through the lens of gender. The supposed feminization of medicine has prompted much professional and public discourse on the issue of gender and medical careers. Discourses centered on gender imbalance at entry to medical school are contrasted with women's accounts of their medical careers. Data consists of both primary (24 interviews with senior female doctors) and secondary sources (national press reports, interviews, records of speeches etc.) drawn from Ireland and the United Kingdom. From the data, we explore what is seen as a problem in terms of gender and medical careers and what is not, how problems are discussed (in individual or systemic terms), and thus what changes are legitimized. We discuss the consequences of this for women in medicine and medical careers more broadly. Key wordsGender, feminization, occupations, medical careers, entry to medical school, discrimination, women in medicine

Gender differences in Australasian ophthalmologists' experiences of the workplace

“…Women nevertheless were more likely than men to report additional obstacles to academic advancement, including a lack of mentorship, rigid academic timelines, negotiating the politics associated with networking and difficulty balancing family responsibilities. These factors have been well recognized in the literature as barriers to women's career advancement in academic medicine as well as in the broader science sector . Studies have shown that although women enter academic medicine in equal or greater numbers, they are less likely to be promoted to senior positions, including head of department or full professor .…”

“…In 2016, 21% of Australian and New Zealand ophthalmologists and 35% of ophthalmology trainees were female . In addition, women within surgical specialties are more likely to report constraints in career advancement compared with men . Reasons for these constraints are partly societal and include women having a larger role in family duties, particularly in childcare and housework.…”

Numbers do not tell the whole story: Gender and medicine in Portugal

“…As the gender orders prevailing in a given society (Connell, 2002;Williams, 1995a) influence these dynamics, they reinforce asymmetries (i.e., gender regimes) in organizations. The health sector is a gendered organizational structure (Doyal, 2001;Riska, 1993), as international (e.g., Lapeyre & Le Feuvre, 2005;Linehan et al, 2013;Rosende, 2008;Williams, 1995a) and Portuguese research findings (e.g., Fernandes Perelman, & Mateus, 2010;Laranjeira, Marques, Soares, & Prazeres, 2008;Marques, 2011) have demonstrated in the cases of both nursing and the medical field in general. This health gendering may shape not only choices of specialty and other career opportunities, but also the relationship between health professionals and clinical practice (Fernandes et al, 2010) Furthermore the symbolic asymmetry theory (e.g., Amâncio, 1997;Amâncio & Oliveira, 2006) allows us to think that in masculine professions such as medicine, the perception of men as distinctive individuals would be confounded with the model of professional, while women would be seen as an undifferentiated category based on sex, representing the other, thus contributing to maintain men's dominant position.…”

“…Research conducted in several countries (e.g., Lapeyre & Le Feuvre 2005;Linehan et al, 2013;Rosende, 2008;Rosenthal et al, 2013) shows that women continue to experience substantial disadvantages in comparison to men, and to work more in part time, while men occupy the higher status positions and are better paid (Lo Sasso, Richards, Chou, & Gerber, 2011), even in what might be deemed female specializations such as pediatrics (Machado, 2003). Moreover, the reconfiguration of segregation extends to countries with more balanced gender distributions in the medical field such as Russia, Finland, Britain and Sweden (Rosende, 2008).…”

“…Medicine represents one case where progress has been seen (Boulis, 2004;Boulis & Jacobs, 2008;Crompton & Lyonette, 2011;Lapeyre & Le Feuvre 2005;Linehan, Sweeney, Boylan, Meghen, & O' Flynn, 2013;Miller & Clark, 2008;Rosende, 2008;Riska, 1993) and Portugal proves no exception (Machado, 2003;Marques, 2011). In the last two decades, the number of women in medicine rose nationally by twelve percentage points, up from 11,385 female doctors (40%), out of a total of 28,326 in 1991 to 23,637 (52%) out of 45,289 in 201345,289 in (PORDATA, 2014.…”